


We/Our/Us

by epsilonfive



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Makeouts, Soft Ed, bc he has been the entire episode, disgustingly in love ed, yo FUCK the brothers thing i wrote this out of pure spite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-23 14:03:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18551272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epsilonfive/pseuds/epsilonfive
Summary: kinda sorta a fix it of 5x11 after the hug. brothers my ass





	We/Our/Us

**Author's Note:**

> summary says it basically. i think we're all annoyed at the last minute no homo. so i wrote something to fix it. they're disgustingly in love and you Can't Change My Mind

The embrace was brief, far briefer than Ed would have liked, but at least it existed at all. Oswald seemed to have lost the sudden burst of energy he had had and sank back into the armchair wearily.

Ed was about to make a comment about how they shouldn’t relax just yet, but seeing the bloodied bandage on Oswald’s face made him bite his tongue. The dull ache he’d been feeling since he watched Oswald hurt himself so severely in order to protect Ed from the grenade flared up again, and he swallowed back the guilt as far back down as it would go.

“How are you feeling?” He said after a moment, his voice the absolute opposite to the raw, power hungry edge it had had before. 

“Tired. I am so tired, Ed,” Oswald replied, head fallen back to rest against the top of the armchair.

“And you got nothing for it,” Ed murmured, making his way over and dropping to his haunches in front of Oswald. “Let me see,”

He tenderly pulled back the makeshift bandage and rechecked Oswald’s face. The sight made him sick, not because of the crimson mangled flesh, not because of the fact that Oswald’s eye had been completely destroyed, but because of the fact that Oswald was wounded so deeply. It was physically painful to see Oswald in such a state.

“It hurts,” Oswald said softly, almost as though he didn’t want Ed to hear.

“I know,” Ed stood up again and rummaged around in his jacket pocket. “I managed to take this bottle of painkillers from the emergency supplies while everyone was distracted. I can’t give you anything too strong just in case,”

Oswald held out a hand eagerly and Ed tipped a generous amount of moderate painkillers into it. He looked around him and spied a glass of water probably left out since before the war for Gotham started. He looked back to Oswald with an apologetic look, and Oswald simply beckoned Ed to give him the glass.

“It is just water,” He said quietly, sounding worryingly exhausted as he did so. “It will not kill me,” Ed smiled sadly before handing over the glass. Oswald downed the medicine and then the entire glass. Afterwards, he pulled a face. “It might not kill me but that certainly was not pleasant. How stale,”

Ed’s smile shifted on its own into one of pure adoration. 

“What?” Oswald said when he looked up again with his good eye, still wide and sparkling and curious, once he’d noticed Ed was looking at him.

“Nothing,” Ed said quickly, looking down as he reached for the glass and put it back on the table. He turned back to Oswald. “This makeshift bandage will not do, you need to be seen to properly,”

“Later,” Oswald groaned, sinking further into the chair as though he wished for it to swallow him completely. “I am too tired,”

“Don’t fall asleep,” Ed said sternly, taking hold of Oswald’s shoulder. “Not until we’re sure you’re not in any danger,”

“It was not a bullet, calm down,” Oswald weakly waved a hand. “Careful now, or I will start to believe you really do care about me,”

“Of course I care about you, you fool!” Ed snapped, and Oswald blinked at him. Ed felt panic in his gut and turned away, pretending to be busying himself with something. “I’m sorry,” He said after a few moments suddenly, and Oswald stared.

“For what?”

“You know what,” Ed said, trying to stop his voice from trembling. “For... _that_.”

“I hushed you before for a reason, Ed,” Oswald said gently. “There is no need to be sorry,”

“Of course there is!” Ed said desperately, turning back to Oswald, his whole body hunched with pure genuine feeling. “I could have pulled both of us out of the way, I could have saved you without injuring myself, but I didn’t, I just froze like an idiot--”

“Ed--”

“--and got you hurt! You saved me, _again_ , and this time at an even greater cost to yourself! You’ve probably _lost your eye_ for me, _why_?! I don’t understand!” By now Ed couldn’t stop himself any more, his eyes welled up and tears threatened to spill over. “Because of me you’ve lost something for life, because of me your sight will never be the same, and because of me you’re in pain when all I wanted to do was keep you safe!”

Oswald kept staring, speechless. He’d never seen Ed this emotional, at least not when it came to him. Somewhere deep down, he liked that Ed was so worried about him, even though he knew that was a selfish thing to feel.

“What do you mean ‘keep me safe’?” Oswald said eventually, trying to ignore how much it hurt his heart to see Ed in such distress. “You did not want to come back. In fact I believe you never wanted to stay, even when Gotham was not under attack. You are always running away. In the end you came back for the city, just as the rest of us did,”

“Oh Oswald... don’t you see?” Ed said, arms falling limp. “I came back for you,”

“What?” Oswald felt his heart pick up speed instantly.

“I lied. I hate lying but I forced myself to because I wanted to keep things simple. We were on the brink of war and I didn’t want something as petty as my feelings distracting us,”

“Lied?”

“I didn’t come back for the city, I came back for you. I have never loved this city as you do, I don’t feel my blood in its walls, I don’t see it and immediately think it’s my home for life. But I do when it comes to you. When everyone says those things about the city, I think the same things, but it’s for you,”

“I... I do not know what to say,”

“You don’t have to say anything. Just listen,” Ed said, fiddling with his hands now. “The submarine, too... It doesn’t need two people to run. It would’ve worked with only one of us. I just said that so you’d come with me. I didn’t want you going back to the city you love so much which I cannot see why. When I told you following your heart never works out for you I was speaking from experience. My head has always kept me safe and it has always overrun my heart. But when you said those words it cut straight through me. When I saw you turning away I knew right at that moment that I could never leave. Gotham isn’t my home. _You are_.”

Oswald had to fight to contain a gasp, swallowing it down hard instead and trying not to pass out from how fast his heart was beating. The pain in his eye was all but forgotten, hearing the words he’d longed Ed to say to him since the very beginning.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“As I said, I didn’t want to distract you. I didn’t want to end up having you get hurt, but you did anyway, and all because of my cowardly actions,”

“It wasn’t--”

“Forgive me, Oswald,” Ed said, moving forward and kneeling in front of him. “You’ve lost a part of you and it’s all my fault,” The tears were flowing freely now, and Oswald felt his heart break to look at them. “This city is wretched, but I can’t blame it for what I’ve done,”

With that, Ed leaned forward so that he was half in Oswald’s lap, head dropping forward so that his forehead was pressed against Oswald’s chest. Oswald could feel the wetness starting to seep through the material.

“Come now,” Oswald said soothingly, reaching up and placing a hand on Ed’s head, the other rubbing his back gently. “There is nothing to forgive. I did what I did because I love you, and I would do it again a thousand times. It is just an eye. What is that compared to your _life_ , my dear Ed?”

“You are so good to me,” Ed looked up, dark brown swimming in tears. “I still don't understand why you feel that way but... thank you,”

“Of course. I never stopped,” He reached down and took Ed’s hands in his own. “I am fine, I promise you. As long as you are here with me, one eye is enough for me,”

“I’ll be your eye,” Ed said gently. “I’ll be by your side until the end,”

“I know,” Oswald said, eye twinkling, before he stood up. “Now, I have a bone to pick with you,”

“What?” Ed said, eyes widening as he scrambled to his feet. “What did I do now?”

“All this time,” Oswald said lowly, walking forward and causing Ed to back up. “You have been feeling the same,”

“I told you I--”

“And then you let me say such an _idiotic thing_ ,” He kept backing Ed up until Ed’s back bumped against the wall. “As _brothers_?”

“That was--”

“Me making a fool out of myself pretending that I felt that way about you when I am still so in love with you even hearing your name is like birdsong,”

“Oh,”

“Yes,” Said Oswald, putting his hands either side of Ed and causing Ed to shrink down a little. “’Oh’,”

“What... what do you intend to do to rectify this?”

“Oh there are many things I have wanted to do to you. Things brothers do not do. Things friends usually do not do,”

“I see,” Ed’s knees were trembling, but it wasn’t out of fear or surprise, it was out of something else entirely.

“You like this, do you not?”

“...No,”

“Liar,” Oswald mused, looking down at Ed through his long eyelashes. “I cannot believe I did not see that you were lying about the reason you came back. You truly are a terrible liar,”

Something snapped inside of Ed and he suddenly stood straight, took Oswald’s arms and span him round so that he was pressed to the wall. Oswald made a soft noise of surprise then looked up at Ed, eye wide and dark with want. His lips were parted and Ed could not resist. He closed the gap, mindful of Oswald’s wound, and kissed him gently.

Oswald let out some sort of sound, something between a gasp and a whine, high and strung out, as though he was tasting food for the first time in weeks, as though he was drinking water after experiencing months of sheer thirst. After some moments of a kiss so slow and tender it felt like a lifetime, they broke apart. Their hands had somehow ended up all over each other. There was silence for a few moments, then, just as Ed made to pull away, he felt a tugging on his tie.

“I have waited so long to kiss you Edward Nygma. I will not accept that as the only one I will get,”

Ed made to say something about Oswald’s injury but Oswald had already yanked him down and kissed him hard, causing stars to dance in front of his eyes. He lost himself in that moment, and the two were pressed so close together, so entangled in one another that they may as well have been one being. They broke apart, panting, still holding onto each other, and then Oswald winced.

Ed came to and moved away, looking at Oswald’s bandage and fussing over him.

“I knew that was too rough! We have to be careful with your injury, if--”

Oswald looked up at Ed with quite possibly the most intense stare Ed had ever witnessed.

“If I knew that was the kind of kiss I would be getting, I would have wished war on Gotham sooner,”

“But you love Gotham,”

“I love you more,”

“Ah,” Ed said, suddenly embarrassed and feeling his cheeks warming up. “I...”

“Do not force yourself. If you cannot say it yet, I understand,”

“I love you too,”

“Oh,” Oswald joined Ed in flustering and the two of them made to busy themselves with something or other.

“The next plan of action is figuring out how to get you seen to properly,” Ed said after a while, once the heat had died down. “I suppose Lee is our only option, considering the state of the city, and we don’t really have time to wait for people to come back out of the woodwork. I cleaned it as best I could and I don’t think there’s chance of infection, but just in case...”

“Very well, although I do not think she would be pleased to see me,”

“She owes you,” Ed said, looking round from the paper he was focusing on. “Once she knows you saved her life, she’ll do it without question,”

“I suppose so,”

“Now,” Ed said, excited that he was finally using his brain again to come up with ideas and turning to face Oswald with paper in hand. “Let me show you my thoughts on improvements of my poorly made bandage.”


End file.
